Math Forum - Problem of the Week

TI-PoW: Caliyah's Cart

Caliyah's family is throwing a huge party. Her mom gets out the rolling cart they use when they need to get a lot of stuff from the store, and tells Caliyah, "I want you to take this to the store and fill it up with boxes of cheese crackers and bottles of fruit punch for the party. We'll need as much as you can get with $40.00 -- make sure you bring back any change."

Caliyah says, "Sure, I'll do that. But how many of each do you want me to get?"

Her mom replies, "Just get as many items as you can, but make sure not to overload the cart -- I don't want you pushing more than 30 pounds."

Caliyah whips out her TI-Nspire™ to help her organize her thinking. Bottles of fruit punch weigh about 4 pounds, and cost $1.50 each. Boxes of crackers weigh about 1 pound, and cost $4.00 each. She decides how many of each item she should get. How many did she decide? How did she know?